Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to displaying video content having a particular frame rate, and more specifically, to adjusting the refresh rate of a display device based on a video content rate.
Description of the Related Art
A typical computing device includes a display screen configured to display digital images at a particular rate, referred to as the “refresh” rate. The refresh rate determines the number of digital images displayed on the display screen within a one second interval. For example, if the refresh rate of the display device is 60 Hz, then the display device outputs 60 digital images per second.
One source of digital images to be displayed on the display screen is video content that includes a sequence of frames, where each frame corresponds to a digital image. The video content may be derived from a variety of different sources and, thus, may have a variety of different frame rates. For example, video content derived from a film source may have a frame rate of 24 frames per second (fps).
When a conventional display device is used to display digital images associated with the video content, a software application may introduce duplicate frames into the sequence frames. However, since only certain images are duplicated and introduced into the sequence of frames, some frames appear to be displayed for a longer period of time than others, resulting in a visual artifact known as “jitter.” For example, when jitter occurs, a moving object displayed on the display device does not move is a smooth and continuous fashion and, instead, moves in a jerky and discontinuous fashion. The jitter artifact causes video content having certain frame rates to appear unrealistic, thereby disrupting the visual experience of a viewer of the digital images associated with the video content.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art is an improved technique for displaying video content.